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Texas sued over controversial rule to bury or cremate aborted fetuses

In a bid to prevent Texas from enacting a controversial rule that would require fetal remains to be buried or cremated after abortions or miscarriages, multiple abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit on Monday.

The suit, filed by groups like Americans United for Life and the Center for Reproductive Rights, alleges that the rule is politically motivated and that it was designed to shame women.

Kristi Hamrick of Americans United for Life argued that health authorities need to be humane and the mothers need to be provided with the opportunity to have a say in the matter. The Center for Reproductive Rights added that it would be costly to require burials or cremation of fetal remains.

Nancy Northup, the chief of the center, said, "These regulations are an insult to Texas women, the rule of law and the U. S. Supreme Court, which declared less than six months ago that medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion access are unconstitutional."

Texas' controversial regulation is part of a wave of laws that followed 2015's undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood, in which an anti-abortion activist accused the women's health organization of illegally selling fetal tissue.

Separately in Ohio, state Attorney General Mike DeWine last year called a news conference and alleged that fetuses from abortions and miscarriages were being "cooked" and put into landfills. By 'cooking,' DeWine meant 'sterilized' with steam.